Danny Gokey's "Hope in Front of Me"

Several years ago, in the eighth season of American Idol, one contestant stood out with his soulful voice and his sad backstory.

He was Danny Gokey.  He went on to place third in the competition, but throughout that season, he was shouldering a heavy burden of sorrow and depression over the untimely death of his young wife.

We knew about Danny's faith in God, but we might not know how severely that faith was tested in the aftermath of his wife's passing.

Fast forward over 5 years.  A lot has changed--Danny's still singing, still recording, heading up a foundation (Sophia's Heart) that provides solid, practical help to the homeless and
underprivileged.

He's also been blessed with a beautiful wife and a little son.

And now he's sharing encouragement in his new book, "Hope in Front of Me: Find Purpose in Your Darkest Moments."

Danny's words have the ring of authenticity, because he's not just talking about discouragement and depression...he's been there, and lived to tell about it.

I was delighted to interview Danny about that book, as well as to catch up with what's been going on in his life lately and hear about his sophomore album, which he's currently recording.  Hope you'll take a listen!

My interview with Scott MacIntyre, Part 2

The American Idol 8 Top 10 finalist dishes about the book he's writing, Pants on the Ground, and the surreal feeling of performing with Alice Cooper

Listen to another excerpt of my interview with American Idol's Scott MacIntyre.

In this clip, Scott talks more about what he's been up to since his season of AI ended, and what's in his future.

My interview with Scott MacIntyre

The American Idol Season 8 Top 10 finalist talks about the book he's working on, his upcoming album and what the Idol experience meant to him

Listen to an excerpt of my interview with Scott MacIntyre here.

Scott MacIntyre has never been one to let a disability stand in his way. When he decided to audition for American Idol, he didn't worry about his visual impairment; the deciding factor was when the show began allowing contestants to accompany themselves on instruments.

"As soon as they wheeled a grand piano out on stage, I knew it was something I had to try," he told me in a phone interview today.

Scott tells me that the book he's writing will really go behind the scenes with his experience as the first AI finalist with a disability. One of the most challenging things? Having to memorize where the camera was going to be at any given time, especially while trying to perform choreography.

Fortunately, Scott has no deficiency at all when it comes to brain power. According to Wikipedia: "He obtained his masters degree at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Royal College of Music, where he studied on a Marshall Scholarship, one of the most competitive scholarships in the United States, awarded to only 40 American students each year."

That's just one part of a hefty paragraph on the awards and honors earned by the young musician.

As a Christian on Idol

The Season 8 top 10 included at least three or four people who were identified as Christians, including Scott.

But when asked about how having fellow Christians on the show made a difference, he points to third place finalist Danny Gokey.

"Danny... is the one person on the show that I very closely identify with. I know his faith is real, and it was a pleasure to be around someone like that, especially on tour.”

A survivor

One part of his personal backstory that Scott withheld while on AI was the fact that he nearly lost his life to kidney disease at the age of 19.

He ended up receiving a kidney transplant, but he says the months in which he was very ill and couldn't sing or play were "intense."

Scott didn't want that part of his life to affect the perceptions of Idol viewers, so he didn't talk about it until after the show, during an appearance on Regis and Kelly.

However, he will delve into it in the book, which he says he's co-authoring with someone who is respected in both the fields of music and writing.

Going forward

Scott freely gives credit to American Idol for helping make many of his dreams come true--he says there is no other way he could have accomplished the things he's done just since his stint on the show ended.

His album, "Heartstrings," releases March 11th (NOT May, as I erroneously wrote earlier), and he'll also appear on American Idol around that time. An EP of songs from Heartstrings is already available on iTunes.

Listen to an excerpt of my interview with Scott MacIntyre here.

Will I like American Idol this season?

My family will attest to the fact that I don't actually watch a lot of television. I have a select few shows that have traditionally been my favorites: Lost, Biggest Loser and American Idol.

I've enjoyed watching AI because, as with other "reality" shows, I would find my favorites early on, and take pleasure in watching their progress.

I used to really look forward to a new AI season, because it's one of the things that breaks up the monotony of the long, cold Northern Illinois winter.

So American Idol is back next week...and I'm not at all sure at this point if I'm even going to like it.

Vicious?

My favorite last season was Danny Gokey. As someone who also frequents online blogs and the like, I quickly found out that a Danny Gokey fan was NOT the most popular thing to be (at least not online. In real life, most people I encountered seemed to love the guy.)

Almost as soon as Danny showed up with the backstory of his young wife dying suddenly and tragically--combined with the fact that he was marked as a Christian early on--a cadre of highly vocal online entertainment writers and bloggers launched what could only be characterized as a hate campaign against him.

The reasons for this were initially mystifying--why would anyone possibly fault someone who had recently lost a loved one for mentioning it?--it soon became clear that Danny was being slammed because he had the innate raw talent to pose a major threat to one or two of the other front-runners on the show.

The whole experience had the effect of somewhat souring me on the show itself. If fans could be that vicious--and believe me, MANY of the comments were both vicious and cruel--I don't know, it was just really disheartening.

Frankly, my faith in basic human kindness--what little I had left--plummeted after reading those comments. I soon learned to avoid the blogs and sites that boasted such toxic ugliness.

Interestingly, despite the fact that AI season 8 is history and Season 9 is launching, the nasty comments about Danny continue on some sites. Makes you wonder about people who have so little of a life that they simply can't let it rest.


A show that did it right

Meantime, a few weeks ago, we were treated to a reality music show that did what American Idol fails to do--judge contestants without humiliation and hatefulness.

"The Sing-off" was a short-lived, few-episode show that featured a cappella singing groups. Granted, the no-talents were winnowed out ahead of time, so there was little need for snarky comments.

But the judges? Wow, they actually gave constructive criticism, couched in encouraging praise. They actually KNEW something about music theory and presentation.

So I'm just not sure...

I'll give it a chance, of course. And I'll probably have favorites early on.

But God forbid they should have a tragic backstory and actually have the audacity to talk about it, because the haters will be on them like white on rice. (Unless it's just Danny Gokey they've determined to hate.)

My interview with Danny Gokey

It's no secret to any of you who read this blog that I enjoy American Idol. Every season I seem to zero in on one or two people who become my favorites, that I pull for along the way. But this past season, I found my favorite American Idol contestant of all time--29-year-old Danny Gokey of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

I had already fallen in love with this young man's voice and spirit before I found out that he is a Christian, and that he actually led worship at a church in nearby Beloit, Wisconsin--which happens to be in the listening area of the radio station where I work.

I'm delighted that I was able to do a phone interview with him! I have to tell you that he comes across as sweet, humble, and good-humored...just as I expected.

We chatted about a number of things, from how his faith has gotten him through the past year (which included the unexpected death of his young wife, as well as his success on American Idol), to who some of his favorite Christian singers are, to his dreams and hopes for the foundation he named after his wife.

And of course, the big question: when is his album coming out?

You can listen to the entire 12-minute interview here.

The Steven Curtis Chapman family, one year later

A year ago, I blogged about a tragedy that had befallen the family of one of the most beloved Christian singers, Steven Curtis Chapman.

The Chapman's 5-year-old adopted daughter, Maria, had been killed after being accidentally hit by a vehicle driven by her older brother.

Chapman's wife Mary Beth writes movingly on the 1st anniversary of Maria's death. It's the anguished heart cry of a mother living without her baby and hurting for her son, but it's also a message infused with a quiet faith:

I told someone yesterday that I feel as though I'm not just walking through a desert right now....I'm actually wondering through it with no clear path in front of me....It is a very desperate place to be, and on lots of days, I'm strong on the outside but a mess on the inside....but I must hold on to the very real fact that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for me....that where He is I will also be! That is very, very good news...because my Maria is there....

Read the entire message here.

Congratulations...



...to 23-year-old church worship leader from Conway, Arkansas, who won American Idol last night...Kris Allen!

In this article, Richard Rushfield of the Los Angeles Times ponders that Allen's upset win "gives America back its heart."

Stuff to tell you...

"This don't look like LAX."--Sawyer

A mind-blowing "Lost" finale, and other fascinating tidbits

--Well, I guess the question of Rose and Bernard's whereabouts has been answered! AMAZING finale for "Lost" last night...I have no idea what's going to happen next season.

--Sad to see Danny Gokey leave the American Idol competition, but I'm sure it will be for the best. As the winner or runner-up, he might have had to practically sell his soul to the AI machine. That young man has a bright future in music and ministry.

--Jon Foreman of the band Switchfoot has joined the Darfur Fast for Life.

--Names have always fascinated me! Word now that "Emma" and "Jacob" are the top 2, for girls and boys respectively.

--Last, but not least, a couple of major things are happening in my life.

The radio station where I have worked for the past 28 years has been sold to a company that syndicates Christian radio across the nation. I have a little time to figure out what I'm going to do next, but everything is pretty vague at this point. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated!

And now the happy news...I'm going to be a Nanna again! My daughter-in-law Daylyn is expected Baby Number 2 somewhere around Thanksgiving.

Life is such a strange mixture of highs and lows, isn't it? :)

Reality check: online American Idol coverage has shown a mean streak

America has a mean streak, and it's surfaced in an unlikely venue: the online coverage of "American Idol."

As we head into a finale that will no doubt include Adam Lambert, and may or may not include Danny Gokey, I have to express what I've been feeling for a while.

The reporting on the competition by online entertainment reporters and high-profile American Idol-related bloggers and their commenters has been nothing short of incredible in its vitriolic, sneering, scornful, and yes, downright hateful bias against Danny Gokey.

Criticisms repeated to death

They've resurrected the same tired criticisms ad nauseum, to the point of being ludicrous.

The weakest criticism is that Danny's singing is just "safe" or "mediocre" or "boring." But it goes much farther than that. It gets personal, and in a really vicious way.

It all began very early on in the competition with their assumption that Danny was trying to gain "sympathy votes" due to the tragic death of his young wife. Never mind the fact that this is not something a person who had just lost his wife would be able to NOT talk about. AND the fact that the show itself was responsible for stressing that backstory at the beginning.

A couple of weeks into the competition, the show stopped talking about Danny's wife completely. But that didn't silence the trying-to-gain-sympathy-votes criticism...it continues to this day.

Arrogant?

Inexplicably, talk on the blogs and message boards began to the effect that Danny is cocky, arrogant, overly-confident, a jerk. Bear in mind that this is from people who don't know him at all--they're basing these blanket criticisms on seeing him for a few minutes a week on a TV show.

And never mind the fact that his many fans don't get this impression from his behavior whatsoever. (In fact, people that saw him in action during "Danny Gokey Day" in Milwaukee commented on the fact that he was nice to everyone.)

And so, during this entire American Idol season, Danny Gokey has not been able to do one thing right for these people. If he smiles fondly while Allison Iraheta sings her farewell, he's "smirking smugly" or sporting a "s#$%-eating grin."

If he seems sad or teary, he's trying to get sympathy for being a widower. If he smiles or laughs, he got over his loss too quickly. There is NOTHING he can do, and no way he can do it, to please these people.


An admission

Even some of the online writers have admitted they can't stand Danny. MTV's James Montgomery fully cops to it in this article:

"... I have written plenty of nasty stuff about Gokey... without ever meeting him and have been congratulated by my friends and co-workers for doing so. And this probably says more about me — and people like me — than any of us would care to admit.

"Do we dislike Gokey for any tangible reason? Is he a bad tipper? Mean to the elderly? No, we hate him because he sometimes appears to be a jerk on a televised singing competition. And that apparently gives us license to say all sorts of nasty things about him, to accuse him of wearing his wedding ring or using the death of his wife to curry the favor of 'Idol' voters. And that's crazy. And pretty mean.

"Perhaps Danny Gokey is proof that we hate without reason. That we are given to jealousy. That we dislike those who are naturally gifted (and dare to acknowledge that fact). That we are all, on some level, elitists, and within us all lies a superiority complex, a bias against those in the so-called 'red states' who somehow find Gokey's story, struggle, faith — and even his voice — inspiring and uplifting.

What does it say about our society?

Whatever is behind the unreasonable assumptions and blatant criticism, it all goes beyond mere dislike or just not being a fan. It's active, aggressive, toxic cruelty, and I don't like the troubling things it says about our society.

We live in an America that places no value on life, where young people are taught that nothing has meaning, there's no right or wrong. So go ahead--be as hateful as you want to be. Hurt people as much as you want to. There are no consequences to it anyway.

You reap what you sow

I guess I'm pretty naive, but I've always subscribed to a philosophy similar to the one uttered by the Steve Martin con-man character in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels": "My grandmother always told me, it is better to be good and kind than to not."

You can dislike a person, a singer, a celebrity or whatever, without being hateful and cruel. Some of the comments about Danny's loss have been cruel in the extreme.

I also believe in an undeniable law of the universe: You reap what you sow. I don't believe in spreading hatred, for that very reason. I believe in spreading kindness, because I know it's all going to come back to me.

And that's true whether you happen to believe it or not.

The one heartening thing is that this seems to be almost an exclusively online phenomenon. Talk to the average person on the street, and they're surprised to find that there are people who don't like Danny! Sure, there are those who prefer Adam or Kris, but not to the point of hating Danny.

It's just a reality show, I know. Not important in the grand scheme of things. But I hope the unreasonable mean streak toward one person for no good reason gives us all a reality check.

So what's all this about a Conficker worm?

and other stuff to tell you...

Apparently it's no April Fool's joke--and it's not one of those pesky e-mail hoaxes.

A nasty computer worm called Conficker is supposed to be unleashed on unprotected PC's everywhere tomorrow, April 1st.

If you use a Mac, no worries for you. Otherwise, experts are saying it's better to be safe than sorry.

Here's a CBS story about Conficker and how to protect your computer from it.

Other stuff to tell you...



--It's been a tough year for my favorite American Idol contestant, Danny Gokey. Of course there was the death of Danny's wife earlier this year (and subject of an internet backlash by Danny-haters who accused him of using it to get sympathy votes). Well, this blogger from Danny's church says Danny's grandfather passed away and he attended the funeral in Milwaukee over the weekend.

Meantime, for whatever reason, Danny has been slipping in some internet power rankings. But not with Chuck Harvey of One21music.com, which has been following the Christian contestants on AI:

Danny Gokey has been consistently, consistently, consistently good. Michael Jackson, Motown, Grand Ole’ Opry, Danny has delivered every week with every genre. There continues to be a DannyGokey backlash on the Internet but that will not derail his American Idol train. The biggest challenge he has is the success that keeps him at number one in the power rankings. American Idol winners tend to have improvements throughout the season usually have a breakthrough moment (Jordan Sparks with “I (Who Have Nothing)” and David Cook with “Music of the Night”). Danny needs to find a performance to shock people, in a good way.

Read more of Chuck's thoughts here and here.

By the way,those who DVR take note: American Idol will be 20 minutes longer than usual tonight, ending at 9:20 EDT/8:30 CDT.

I talk with Mandisa!

She's rooting for Danny!

I had the privilege today of interviewing one of the loveliest, most talented and most gracious ladies ever to come out of American Idol...Mandisa!

Mandisa was the ninth-place finalist in the fifth season of American Idol, the one that was eventually won by Taylor Hicks.

But being ninth-place hasn't hampered Mandisa's success in the Christian music field. Her first album, "True Beauty," debuted at #1 on the Top Christian Albums charts, making it the first time a new female artist has debuted at #1 in the charts 27 year history. It also debuted at #43 on the Billboard 200, an unusually high debut on that chart for a Christian artist.(from Wikipedia)

Her sophomore album, "Freedom," is the follow-up to "True Beauty."

She likes Danny!

Mandisa confirmed to me that she is following this season's American Idol, and that Danny Gokey is her favorite. Listen here.

She's lost 75 pounds...

When Mandisa first entered the American Idol competition, she endured snide comments--from Simon Cowell in particular--about her weight. She has since lost some 75 pounds, and hopes to lose a total of 100. Mandisa tells me she has accomplished this by changing her attitude about food with the help of the Lord.

I asked Mandisa about her weight loss here.

Although Mandisa hasn't been asked to sing on Idol this season, she tells me she'll be in the audience in a couple of weeks, and then she plans to be back for the finale.

You can listen to the entire interview here.

Stuff to Tell You!

--A new conservative blog that's sure to be unique has launched: The Mother of All Conservatives.

--During this bicentennial of President Lincoln's birthday, all Illinoisans are being encouraged to read a book about him.

--Here's a cool story: an atheist who donated a kidney ended up finding God.

--The radio station where I work, 101QFL, now has a Facebook page. Be our friend! Just search for Positive Hits Wqfl.

--As I've mentioned, I have a very definite favorite in American Idol this year: Danny Gokey. The best pro-Danny website I've found is I Heart Danny Gokey.com. It's a virtual plethora of all things Danny.

I haven't been posting AI updates, but there are several people who do a great job of it.

One21music is particularly following the Christian contestants on AI this year. There are several, including Danny. Chuck live blogs most of the shows, and posts re-caps.

Chuck also tells me that One21 will be covering the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, TX, this coming week. He posts: "At One21music we cover the full spectrum of Christian music, including the vibrant Underground Chrsitian music scene. We will be focusing on 20 Christian music artists performing at SXSW." South by Southwest is the largest music industry gathering in the world.

Back to American Idol--I was happy to find out that BooMama hosts a round-up of blogs who post AI re-caps. All of the blogs I looked at in this round-up were family-friendly and lacking in mean-spiritedness, but they were engaging, and some of them were truly hilarious. Check them out for yourself.

Quote o' The Day

Gotta hand it to my 101QFL morning show co-host, Darren Marlar.A little backstory here: I had Facebook-messaged Darren, along with my friends Mike Schlote and Joe Buchanan, about the Danny Gokey backlash.

Somehow we started talking about "Lost" in the middle of it all, and the conversation among Joe, Mike and me was going back and forth between American Idol and Lost.

When Darren finally popped up, this is what he said:

Okay, so I'm just now getting to this thread and trying to catch up. I just scanned through it all, but if I understand correctly, Danny Gokey is a real creep because he didn't show emotion when Jack was upset about Sarah, but it all works out in the end because Desmond and Tatiana end up together.
Is that about right?

Guess that about sums it up. :)

Oh Danny Boy...

I've made no secret of the fact that Danny Gokey is my favorite contestant on American Idol this season.

Danny has been a worship leader at Faithbuilders church in nearby Beloit, Wisconsin in recent years.

I'm going out on a limb and saying that he is probably my favorite contestant EVER on the show.

Go here to hear Danny's performance last night.